Sunday morning, stomach to chest high and glassy down south with some bigger sets especially in Satellite, thigh to waist at the Cape. Winds should be 3 to 6 mph out of the SW and then West. Winds increasing thru the day to 10 to 15 mph with the swell dropping rapidly, especially by mid-afternoon. Get out before 7:30 while the winds are light and before the swell really starts to drop by 11 or 12.
How the Waves were on Thursday, chest high plus and glassy down south by Patrick and Satellite.
Stomach to almost chest high Friday and very glassy in Satellite but a little textured and a little chop North of Minuteman once the SSW winds started around 8. Really fun waves in Satellite, nice fast walls.
Saturday, light onshores, and solid waist to stomach high at Lori Wilson, once high tide hit at 1:30 it was really clean and fun long rides on long board and fun, short workable walls on short board.
Oh, Friday Fest in Cape Canaveral was awesome and so was the band Vilify. They had to be under 22 years all 3 of them and man, the Bass, Drummer and especially lead guitar were all awesome. They played metal, Pink Floyd, The Doors and their own original. And the food and booths of artists, etc were great.
Friday morning 7 AM swell size model from magicseaweed.com and Noah.
Before I mention what today was like, an 8:00 PM update for Friday mornings call I have down below from earlier today. The 120 buoy is hanging around 4 foot at 11 seconds which is good, and the moving swell model is showing that it ought to hit 5 to 6 foot at the 120 tonight, but the winds are blowing SSW out there , at least down from 11 to now 5 knots SSW, but that could keep a lot of the swell back. So it could drop even smaller on Friday than it was today but I still feel better than 50 % that we’ll have chest high waves down south Friday morning 🙂
The pier had solid waist high waves today, I surfed on Johnson which was knee-high maybe some bigger sets, mostly closeouts but it was worth getting wet. With the winds being SW at the Cape, that actually is sideshore to occasionally slight offshore winds for us, and definite offshore down south, so that’s why we had some bumpy texture here. When I went to the pier at 11 Am, the winds had just turned onshore, it was waist-high and glassy so probably a foot bigger down south though I haven’t heard back yet on that.
Friday still looks to be a foot bigger or should I say stomach to chest high down south with a wind change to SSW winds instead of the earlier models that said SW.The SSW winds look to only hold until 9 AM at best so get out early! The actual swell from Emily is still rolling in straight thru until Saturday morning. Take a look at the first image which shows the Friday incoming swell model with the arrow pointing to a lighter blue than the 2nd picture which was for this morning, so the swell should be a little bigger and stronger for Friday morning but only for early morning.
Thursday morning 7 AM swell size model from magicseaweed.com and Noah.
Saturday the swell size peaks at around 3.5 feet at 9 seconds at around daybreak still looks to be chest high plus down south with onshore winds all day maybe some shoulder high sets, with light onshores in the morning (2 to 4 mph SSE, and increasing onshores in the afternoon, right now I can only read until 1 Pm which shows 6 mph east.
Sunday I believe will have chest high plus waves down south with I suspect NW winds, but that I will confirm Friday sometime early evening. Sunday still looks to be the semi-epic day. Only a North wind break for Sunday, meaning only a surf break North of Minuteman Causeway.(From the Cape to Satellite we have a bay in the shape of a C with Minuteman being the bottom, so if you look at my Google Map chart, you will see why I say South Wind and North Wind breaks.)Follow this link and scroll down just below the 4 small surf pictures and you will see the Names of 5 to 10 breaks and whether they are in the North or South wind break area.
Anyhow, have fun Friday thru Sunday.
Oh, don’t forget about the Cape Canaveral Friday Fest, to support children in school plus our local vendors, artists and beer, wine providers 🙂
My lust for huge wave videos continues, (Click the 4 little arrows just right of the HD letters on the video to see this full screen, its awesome) but first, our local update……We still have a small swell approaching what seems to be Thursday night after midnight, on our beaches Friday morning. Now, will the offshore winds Thursday and Thursday night keep the small swell from hitting the actual beaches, that is the question.
Thursday morning, there may be some fun knee high waves at the Cape here. High tide at 7:20 am approx., so anytime after that if you have a long board.
Friday morning, we could have some thigh high waves here, if………..the offshore winds don’t keep it offshore. The reason why I believe we could get something, is the moving swell period chart comes sweeping in a few hours before daybreak with a 9 second period and a fetch that looks to be 500 miles or so.
Best scenario, thigh high and glassy. Worst, glassy shorebreak and a nice day to surf fish 🙂
Saturday the period drops one notch, but also a chance of something rideable then.
I’m trying to be optimistic and realistic. 50/50 chance for Friday morning fun waves.
The video, is a huge swell that hit Puerto Escondido Mexico with some 30 to 50 foot faces, and a crowd of the big waves surfers there.
A picture I took with an exhumed 35 mm camera with not prior practice, just to get some pitiful shots of a huge Halloween 2007 swell that we had. This was a 12 foot plus face wave that I shot from the back of Cocoa Beach pier. It was about a 2 1/2 board stacked end to end face so the guy had a pretty good fall.
We have a small swell approaching what seems to be Thursday night after midnight, on our beaches Friday morning. It’s an east/southeast swell, oh what a surprise ! for the direction, that is looking to bring some waist high waves Friday morning with offshore winds as the models show right now, and a bump up to stomach or chest high on Saturday with offshore winds in the morning also. When I see the 4-5 feet at the 120 buoy Thursday evening and winds only out of the east to bring it to the shores for Friday morning, then I’ll get real excited…….
It actually looks to be between a simple wind swell, and a wannabe ground swell. By Friday morning, the fetch of the swell has one big solid blue stretching out about twice the length of Florida out eastward, so this seems to represent a small low pressure system, but definitely small.
Since this swell doesn’t stretch out the desired 1000 to 2000 miles in width, the models and arrival of said swell can change drastically, but since this is the wave dry time of the year, I feel like getting excited about it.
The picture to the left was humorously taken with a 35 mm camera that I dug out of a closet back in 2007 for a huge Halloween swell that we had. I had no zoom on it, didn’t remember how to use it, but I had taken a few pictures of Kevin, owner of Cape Surf, but this particular pic I took because the guy riding the wave wiped it pretty good, and the wave face height was 2 1/2 times the length of his board so he had a pretty good fall when this wipe out was done. Yeah I know the quality of the pic is hard to see the wave size, but it’s easy enough to add at least two board lengths to get the minimum face height.
Anyhow, fingers crossed for Friday and Saturday. Waves for July 4rth weekend would be nice.
Today (Saturday around 12:00 PM) at Lori Wilson Park, they had a contest and the waves were nice even with the fairly strong onshore winds. Size was solid waist to stomach high with maybe some bigger sets. Fairly long workable shoulders for longboarders and some nice sections for shortboarders. Friday nite in Satellite Beach they were waist to stomach high with high onshore winds but really good form around 5:30 Pm for longboard, marginal rides for short board.
Quiksilver Ceremonial Punta de Lobos 2011contest, from magicseaweed.com, the first contest on the big wave tour event.
Sunday morning, it should be solid waist high plus in Cocoa Beach and further south. At 6 Pm Saturday night it was around 4 feet at 8 seconds at the 120 mile buoy, and between 11 and 12 today it climbed up to 7.5 feet at 8 seconds, so at least its still a solid wind swell. Oh yeah, the winds should be NW at first light and turning NNW for an hour or so and N to NE sometime between 9 and 10 Am.
Yeah, predicting the winds can be iffy, but as I looked at the weather.com hourly winds for Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach and Satellite Beach, for the last 36 hours, it’s been consistently showing those wind models, so I’ll give it a 70% chance of holding true. If I’m wrong, shoot me ! 🙂
Oh, high tide is around 5 Am Sunday morn, and as ya’ll know High going low is always better than low going high. So get out by 6:30 to 7:30 and ya got perfect tides and good winds.
By the way, the best breaks to surf for NNW winds are anything North of Minuteman Causeway. That’s because direct North winds are from 2 to 6 degrees offshore for streets North of Minuteman, and when you get South of minuteman like the streets, 8th, 16th, O Club, Perkins Hightowers, those are all South wind breaks because Minuteman at Coconuts forms a bay if you will that curves out to the left or the right as you look at the ocean. (sorry, it’s an anal-retentive thing I did by plotting Google map with Vectors and all to determine the exact angle each break faces whether it be South or North;)
I forgot, ya’ll know about my obsession with big wave surfing events, the video here is Chile, Brazil’s Marcos Monteiro took top honours in the season’s first Big Wave World Tour event at the Quiksilver Ceremonial Punta De Lobos Big Wave Invitational in 30ft plus surf. Many of the big name big wave surfers were there. The list of the full cast of the 2011 Quiksilver Ceremonial were: Jamie Sterling, Kohl Christensen, Grant Washburn, Carlos Burle, Marcos Monteiro, Peter Mel, Ben Wilkerson, Cristian Merello, Greg Long (won the Eddie against Kelly Slater), Gabriel Villaran, Frank Solomon, Nic Lamb, Joao De Macedo, Eric Rebiere, Sebastian De Romana, Rusty Long, Felipe Cesarano, Andres Flores, Ramon Navarro, Diego Medina, Fernando Zegers, Reinaldo “Chacha” Ibarra, Matias Lopez, and Leon Vicuna.
Anyhow, have a great sesh Sunday, and stop by the The 10th Annual Waterman’s Challenge, June 11-12, 2011 contest at Lori Wilson or actually International Palms Resort to show support which starts at 9:00 Am I believe Sunday morning for day two.
Jeff Cooks Palm Frond Coastal Art Paintings, Sunsets, Space Shuttle, Waves and More...
Hey check out the local Artist, Jeff Cook and some of his Coastal Art Painting on Palm Fronds and wood.
Sunsets, beautiful waves formed from palm fronds and wood painted to order. Jeff has some Space Shuttle over Ocean art, Sunsets all done with Ultraviolet safe marine paint so you can decorate outdoors or indoors without fear of fade.
Prices start at under $ 20 and go up so they’re great for gifts or to spoil yourself 🙂
Send an email to Art with your phone number and we’ll have Jeff give you a call, and you can stop by and check out the awesome work!
Thursday morning (4/28) the waves were a lot of fun, moderate south winds (10 to 12 mph) at our break a 1/2 mile south of 2nd light. Shoulder high and occasionally larger drops, with chest high shoulders, rights and lefts working, but most were only about 50 yard rides on a long board. Plenty of chances to get pitched 🙂 But they had some great punch to them with some great fast walls to work until they closed out. 3 of us out, around 7:30 till 10, All to our selves. Great session.
Friday morning at Hightowers, it was thigh high perfect glass in texture but close-outs after 50 yards or so. 20 minutes after I got out, the storm from east and north hit and totally blew out the waves, oh well 😉
We have additional wind swell coming in Saturday thru Monday am in the chest to shoulder high range down south and a little smaller at the Cape, and it appears to hang around a day or two after that. Don’t expect any glass for the next 5 days, but there should be plenty of waves to paddle into anyhow. Hey, we usually start the flat season now so get excited that we have waves.
When we see a window of offshore winds we’ll let ya know.
Sorry, no pics for now 😦
Oh, and sorry, the Shuttle Launch got scrubbed and is now on tentative for Sunday 5/1 some time.
Monday 7 Am moving period chart screenshot showing the most consistent shape of the swell so far. Compliments of Magicseaweed.com data sources.
The 120 buoy has climbed from 6 feet at 10 seconds to 7.5 feet at 10 seconds at 5:50 PM today and I believe it will still hit around 8.5 feet some time after midnite. !
The waves in the morning will be in the head high range sometime tomorrow down south, maybe a foot overhead.The winds are light 7 mph east to se.It may even have an offshore breeze before daybreak from the land cooling off quicker than the ocean. I’ll give it a 30% chance of that. It’s not like someones gonna hold me accountable !
Size should be at least 6 inches bigger than this morning anyhow.
The two screenshots of the seaboard period chart are to show you how Sunday at 7am the water mass area of the swell had a more eratic wind pattern than the Monday morn 7 am chart shows. It has some nice uniform bands of period color change.
My point, I believe we may some more power, better pseudo-lines and longer workable walls Monday, even with the slight onshore winds than we had on Sunday (today). It will probably be big and clean like Thursday morning but with a couple more feet in size than Thursday.
Sunday morning 7 Am moving swell period chart. Magicseaweed.com data source.
The first size of the swell was Thursday, and We were fortunate enough to catch the dawn patrol session (close to dawn:) , South of 2nd light. It was wait wait wait, until 7:40 ish, and then some chest high glass or semi-glass with plenty of power.
Winds were offshore for awhile, lefts and rights were working. Four of us in the water only, what a great session!
For Sunday; the 120 buoy has been pushing 5.5 to 6.5 feet at around 10 seconds now for about 24 hours, ESE winds bringing it in, so I believe we’ll seem some shoulder high waves down south, and some chest high sets at the Pier and Shephard Park.
If you can catch it, 1 hour after full high tide, and any time for 3 or 4 hours after that, even with the on shore winds at 10 to 15 mph plus, you’ll catch some long workable left or right shoulders.
We should have waves for the next few days, no offshore winds in sight, but like I said, catching it high going low, will give you an easy paddle out, and clean shoulders with totally workable walls.
Enjoy the last day of the Easter Surf Fest, lots of good food, great scenery, bonding and all that stuff.
I hope you can catch an Easter Sunrise Service, our Pastor Greg Le Sieur from Christ Lutheran Church will be at the Shephard Park Sunrise Service starting around 6:45 Am.
Raimana Van Bastolaer catches the wave of the day at Teahupoo, he caught the best barrell in 2010 for the XXL awards for the monster barrell contest.
Thursday morning (tommorrow) looks like it should be chest high down south. The swell strengthens for a day, not a big jump in size, but more in power, it just hit 4 feet at 10 seconds at the 120 buoy. The most significant thing, is the winds changed from a south southeast direction to total east, so it will bring in the swell more.
Winds ought to be in the 4 to 6 mph se maybe sse direction and stay light until lunchtime, where they should kick up an increase throughout the day.
The perfect mid-tide time with the low winds is 8 am, low is around 5 am, so getting out at 7 thru 10 should give the cleanest kick for the day.
The photo to the left is Raimana Van Bastolaer who is from Tahiti, one of the locals for Teahupoo, and hey what a surprise, he caught the biggest barrel best wave of the day. He also won the monster barrel Billabong XXL awards for 2010. Thanks to Magicseaweed.com for providing the awesome swell photo gallery of Teahupoo. See the rest here.
The Easter surf fest should have plenty of head high waves or at least plenty of 5 to 6 foot faces thru the weekend, so get it while you can. Like Ross at cflsurf.com says, it may be the last swell before the PHLAT season, unless we have a replay of last summer which was a freak and a gift from God. But we’ll see.
Johnson Avenue Surfers 